SWR Symphony Orchestra

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The SWR Symphony Orchestra is the symphony orchestra of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR).

history

The SWR Symphony Orchestra emerged from the merger of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR and the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg in September 2016. It unites the important lines of tradition of the two previous orchestras. The new orchestra is based in Stuttgart . The decision to merge the two orchestras was taken on September 28, 2012. The development associations and circles of friends as well as the Baden-Württemberg State Music Council initially rejected the dismantling of culture and initiated a petition. The directorship has moved away from the also criticized plan of forming two special ensembles for old and new music in addition to a large symphonic line-up. With the merger of the two orchestras, the staffing plan includes 200 musicians; the target of 119 posts is to be achieved in the future through socially acceptable cuts.

The SWR orchestras have been formed by chief conductors since it was founded in 1945/1946: in Baden-Baden / Freiburg it was Hans Rosbaud , Ernest Bour , Michael Gielen , Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth , in Stuttgart Hans Müller-Kray , Sergiu Celibidache and Sir Neville Marriner , Gianluigi Gelmetti , Georges Prêtre , Sir Roger Norrington and Stéphane Denève .

The overall artistic director of the new ensemble is Johannes Bultmann . The orchestra's first concert took place on September 22nd, 2016 under the direction of Peter Eötvös in the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. Solo cellist Frank-Michael Guthmann has been elected by the musicians to the orchestra board. There was no chief conductor for the first two seasons of the SWR Symphony Orchestra. Teodor Currentzis has headed the orchestra since the 2018/19 season . In workshop discussions in English, the so-called “Currentzis-LABs”, he introduces selected works and deals in particular with questions of interpretation in musical examples. After the official end, he usually adds surprising chamber music encores to his concerts.

In addition to new music, the profile of the SWR Symphony Orchestra includes symphonic orchestral literature from previous epochs as well as interpretive approaches from historically informed performance practice. Live recordings are broadcast as web concerts on the Internet. In addition to numerous music education events for young and old, the program is rounded off by lunchtime concerts in Stuttgart and chamber concerts in Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Stuttgart. Together with the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , another chamber music project was started in October 2018 to match the selected images.

In addition to numerous appearances in SWR's own concert series in Freiburg (Konzerthaus, E-Werk), Mannheim (Rosengarten) and Stuttgart ( Liederhalle ), the SWR Symphony Orchestra is present at the Donaueschinger Musiktage and the Schwetzingen Festival . Performances and invitations have led and will lead the SWR Symphony Orchestra to the newly formed Whitsun Festival in Baden-Baden as a residence orchestra , to the Berlin Music Festival , for a multi-day residency in the Dortmund concert hall, in Essen, Fellbach, Frankfurt, Friedrichshafen, in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg , to Heidelberg Spring , to Karlsruhe, to the Eight Bridges Festival in Cologne, to Ludwigsburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Villingen-Schwenningen, Wiesloch and to the Rheingau Music Festival . Abroad, the orchestra performed in Barcelona, ​​Basel, Edinburgh, London, Lucerne, Madrid, Paris, in Salzburg at the Festival, in Tallinn, Turin, Warsaw and Vienna. The SWR Symphony Orchestra went on concert tours to Spain in November 2018 and to China (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and others) in May 2019 with the conductor Wolfram Eschenbach and the soloist Ray Chen (violin).

In the Corona crisis 2020, all other concerts were canceled from March. With a short lead time, a new concert season for public visitors with a hygiene concept was developed for the following season 2020/21.

Conductors

Conductors like u. a. Herbert Blomstedt , Peter Eötvös , Christoph Eschenbach , Hartmut Haenchen , Pablo Heras-Casado , Manfred Honeck , Jakub Hrůša , Eliahu Inbal , Joana Mallwitz , Ingo Metzmacher , Kent Nagano , Sir Roger Norrington , Michael Sanderling , Omer Meir Wellber and David Zinman are at the SWR Symphony Orchestra as a guest. Teodor Currentzis has been the first chief conductor of the SWR Symphony Orchestra since the beginning of the 2018/2019 season .

Soloists

Among the top-class soloists are u. a. Renaud Capuçon (violin), Julia Fischer (violin), Christina Gansch (soprano), Martin Grubinger (percussion), Hilary Hahn (violin), Janine Jansen (violin), Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Mischa Maisky (cello) and Fazil Say (Piano). Each season the orchestra works with an artist in residence. They were and are Tzimon Barto (piano, 2016/17), Gil Shaham (violin, 2017/18), Antoine Tamestit (viola, 2018/19), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello, 2019/20) and Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin, 2020 / 21).

Web links

Commons : SWR Sinfonieorchester  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Rundfunkrat decides Stuttgart as the new location for the merged SWR orchestra .
  2. Broadcasting Council approves orchestral merger .
  3. International petition against the SWR's merger plans .
  4. Stuttgarter Nachrichten, amalgamation of SWR orchestras 1 orchestra + 1 orchestra = 2 orchestras